tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-84554688438335250662025-01-30T08:35:31.163-05:00Multilitteratus IncognitusPondering what my next degree should be 😂Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.comBlogger986125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-56459916415955532332025-01-30T08:35:00.001-05:002025-01-30T08:35:00.222-05:00I CALLed it! Alright...alright... bad pun 😅But to be fair, CALL (computer-assisted language learning) does lend itself to some bad puns... And that's before I even get into other acronyms like TELL and MALL😹. I promise to spare students the dad jokes in the fall😅Anyway, last week I decided to answer my pondering as to what my course redesign should cover, and I settled on designing an Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-15180949122786577792025-01-08T22:43:00.001-05:002025-01-08T22:43:27.705-05:00Back into Design: CALLing all Language Learning x Technology geeks!New Year, New Projects!I am taking this spring term off from teaching, partly to re-energize my batteries which have been rather low on account that I've been going full speed (🚌) since 2018; the pandemic didn't help because teaching increased around that time (not that I am complaining, the cosmos provided something I needed at the time).  Another reason for the break is partly to work on Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-9319428884901839982024-11-16T10:30:00.019-05:002024-11-16T10:30:00.114-05:00Another migration in our midstWith the US elections now settled, and a second Trump term being a reality, I guess many (most?) of the remaining hold outs on Twitter are finally migrating.  I decided to keep my personal account, for now, and just promote pro-union, pro-education, pro-left, and anti-war messages, while posting my regular content on Threads, Bluesky, and Mastodon.  I am also in the process of shutting Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-18011634859107605862024-11-11T14:08:00.001-05:002024-11-11T14:08:00.116-05:00LLM Powered Research 🧐All right!  With all that pondering and throat-clearing done (see my previous series of posts), I was wondering what piques my interest in this LLM-hyped world from a practical side. I've been somewhat active in critiquing this whole thing over the past two years, but beyond creating AI images for the blog (or to amuse myself), or using ChatGPT to make silly little genre-busting poems (againApostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-86057776818334615782024-10-11T18:30:00.012-04:002025-01-08T22:43:53.785-05:00Ponderings on the next degree😂😅Part VI of my ponderings on all the things and wayfinding in academia. This is the last part of this series - at least for now. I don't know. I think it's time to move from retrospection to some kind of next phase 🤓Anyway, I saved the most controversial topic for last hahaha 😂OK, so before I get the rotten tomatoes🍅🪰, hear me out!😅 I am a big proponent of lifelong learning. In fact, I joke, Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-78183887983440281452024-09-28T14:31:00.001-04:002024-09-28T14:31:00.118-04:00Ponderings on ConnectivityMiseristhenes the SocialmediaiteThis is part V of my all the things(!!!) blog series where I attempt to make sense of all the things I've gotten myself into these past 5-10 years, and I figure out how to Marie Kondo my professional hobbies.  In this post, I turn my attention to social media! The topic that connects us, and divides us, and has gotten the "it's Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-21615743341175244162024-09-15T16:53:00.050-04:002024-09-15T16:53:00.118-04:00Ponderings on TeachingThis is part IV of my all the things(!!!) blog series where I attempt to make sense of all the things I've gotten myself into these past 5-10 years, and I figure out how to Marie Kondo my professional hobbies.  Yes...yes... I know that Kondo is no longer Kondoing and has given up the practice, but I am aiming for the gives you joy part.This particular post tackles Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-67203679041827454232024-09-10T22:13:00.002-04:002024-09-10T22:13:00.229-04:00Ponderings on Research, Writing, and Peer ReviewPart III of my 2024 all the thiiiiiings (read that with an echo😁) ponderings, and attempt to wayfind my way out around the academy...This part deals with researching, writing, and peer review. Some things I've already decided that I am not doing anymore.  Some things I've decided I may be doing a bit of.  And, other things are in limbo...So let me start with a bold proclamation: I am Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-75503982909641995432024-09-07T13:11:00.001-04:002024-09-07T13:11:00.252-04:00Ponderings on Journal Editing Part II of my 2024 academic wayfinding ponderings! 🎓🤔If you remember my last post of 2023, you probably remember that perhaps the thing that's been taking up a lot of mental bandwidth has been the CIEE journal (Current Issues in Emerging eLearning).  This is a journal that I co-founded with my friend and colleague Alan Girelli back in the day (in 2012-2013, if I remember correctly).At theApostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-42979432907131787912024-09-03T14:08:00.001-04:002024-09-03T14:08:00.291-04:00Hey, Strangers!I guess that's me, in the style of Albert UderzoOK...so it's been a while since I last blogged! (checks his notes... December 31, 2023!!! Great Scott!😬🤯) You'd think that I had given up the blogging practice, right? 😅.  Well, you wouldn't be blamed if you thought so! Contrary to appearances, I'm still around!  It's been a busy Spring semester...and a busy Summer...and now it's Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-36154803492272845832023-12-31T14:37:00.002-05:002023-12-31T14:37:00.128-05:002023 Academic Year in Review[warning - a bit of long post] Well, here we are! The end of 2023! It seems like only yesterday that we were starting to hear some whispers about this thing called "ChatGPT," but it was in fact about a year ago, and as you know we moved pretty quickly through that hype cycle.  Don't worry, this entire YIR (year in review) won't be about ChatGPT 😂.  As I was pondering other Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-86411374254514741862023-09-25T18:30:00.001-04:002023-09-25T18:30:00.148-04:00Changing mental gears and putting yourself in student's shoesGazing at LearningThe other day I was doing some reflecting on my own "return" to being a learner after my doctoral journey ended. Last semester I took a course on negotiation, which I saw relevant to both work and also for my role as a member of our union's contract bargaining team this round.  This course was a graduate-level course, and is typically taken either in the first or second Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-84297586888671383392023-08-22T17:30:00.001-04:002023-08-22T17:30:00.138-04:00Preferences for learning modality following COVID19Yesterday evening I came across a post by Tony Bates where he shared some findings from some recent reports on faculty (and student) preferences for learning in a post-pandemic world. I haven't read the reports yet, but I had some initial thoughts based on Tony's high-level overview of those three reports.  Two big things jumped out at me. The first is that students and faculty aren't Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-13661399043292447552023-06-26T16:03:00.004-04:002023-06-26T16:03:57.453-04:00Analyzing the Synthetic SyllabusBing Image Creator: A SyllabusWow...it's been almost two months since I started this post! It's hard to believe that it took this long to return to this thought experiment.  Just to remind the diligent reader of this blog, this came out of not one, not two, but multiple places on the web (including professional development conferences!) whereby instructional designers (and other Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-19197343577162404462023-05-23T17:30:00.001-04:002023-05-23T17:30:00.146-04:00ChatGPT to address faculty burnoutNightCafe: Professor dealing with Digital Burnout It seems like I am operating in Greek Time for #etmooc2 😅. This is a post for the second session of #etmooc which dealt with ethical issues around AI in education (and maybe AI broadly).  Since the third session record has not been posted yet, I'll make the argument that I am still "on time" for some commentary on this 😂. This post hasApostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-88377999784981885792023-05-05T13:20:00.001-04:002023-05-05T13:20:00.137-04:00ETMOOC2 Session 1 Ponderings - Part III (the outtakes)Me again, anime-style AI (or at least whatnightCafe thinks I look like in this setting)Alright, so here's my final post on session one of #etmooc2.  You can find post 1 and post 2 on this blog. For this post, I thought I'd post some prompts and responses from my playing with ChatGPT.  Fair warning, I tried to write a profanity-laden email (it sounds badly written IMO, but still has lotsApostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-42914620480502265272023-05-04T10:11:00.002-04:002023-05-04T10:11:10.888-04:00ETMOOC2 Session 1 Ponderings - Part DeuxAnother me in a Star Trek setting, by NightCafeThis is a continuation of my previous post from the other day. I didn't want to leave things in all negative terms, so here's part II with some thoughts on how AI might be used (or at least areas of AI that I am warming up on).  This isn't a posting about the current state of AI, but rather a 5 (or 10) year look out.  This is mostly Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-79477445112074690312023-05-02T13:12:00.001-04:002023-05-02T13:12:04.507-04:00ETMOOC Session 1 PonderingsMe in a Star Trek-themed anime AI imageJust as session 2 of #etmooc2 is scheduled for this evening, I just caught up with the first session over the last few days. The recording can be found here, and it's funny that it took me 3 days to complete.  Part of it was because I could only really do 20-minute increments (with notes and reactions), and part of it was because I paused to experiment Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-84264180693561723662023-04-26T10:32:00.000-04:002023-04-26T10:32:03.664-04:00Assessment in a Generative Connectivist FutureHey!  Blogging two days in a row! Who would have thunk it?  Well, I did tell Dave I'd read his post, and it did move some gears in the ol' noggin' so I guess something is still working upstairs ;-)I think you should go and read Dave's post, since I'm just going to reflect and react on a few select points. Dave introduced me to an article by Schinske and Tanner (2014) where they describeApostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-78940875018642895092023-04-24T19:30:00.001-04:002023-04-24T19:30:00.223-04:00Experimenting with NightCafe Another AI-based image tool shared in ETMOOC that I thought I would try out.  This one is called NightCafe and it creates images based on a prompt and a particular style from its styles list.    My prompt for this one was: Show me a small group of Greek students huddled around a cafe table, drinking caffeinated beverages, while vigorously discussing philosophy.It's Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-12178464839282892372023-04-24T14:05:00.002-04:002023-04-24T14:05:26.942-04:00To catch a supposed plagiaristI don't often read IHE, but when I do it usually bubbles up from my Twitter feed 😂. The gem that popped up this morning is one professor's lament about how ChatGPT bested him and his Critical Pedagogy practices. While I am happy that someone's attitudes have been adjusted by this experience, I was surprised to read, near the end of the opinion piece that he was familiar with at least some of theApostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-47537826510931720502023-04-20T12:08:00.004-04:002023-04-20T12:08:44.734-04:00A future of couch potatoesI've been a bit "behind" in my participation in ETMOOC 2.0. I've been enjoying keeping an eye on Discord, but I haven't really been participating as much as I would like to.  In a couple of weeks, the semester ends, so mental bandwidth should be freed up a bit ;-).This past week one of the streams that crossed my little part of Twitter was about teachers using ChatGPT to give feedback to Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-89520848708634389432023-04-02T12:59:00.002-04:002023-04-02T12:59:53.788-04:00Detecting AI "plagiarism" and other wild tales If only it weren't for those darned kids!Admittedly I haven't been blogging a lot these days. I keep meaning to come back and actually get into the habit of writing more frequently, but as one of my Twitter acquaintances once observed, you make a note of it to come back to, but then lose motivation (loosely paraphrasing Matt Crosslin - I think).  In any case, à propos of TurnItIn's Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-32732669912403713922023-03-15T11:40:00.002-04:002023-03-15T11:40:36.908-04:00New Article out: Speculative Futures on ChatGPT and Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI)This week a new collaborative article was published in the Asian Journal of Distance Education  titled "Speculative Futures on ChatGPT and Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI): A Collective Reflection from the Educational Landscape." Our friend and colleague Aras Bozkurt invited us to participate in a piece using speculative methodology, something new to me, to explore positive, and not Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-22676934225538428282023-03-05T14:24:00.001-05:002023-03-05T14:24:26.230-05:00Would I lie to you?#wiltyA few weeks ago I decided to ask ChatGPT to tell me a little bit about myself. Part of it was curiosity, while part of it was because I needed to write a short bio and I just felt uninspired.  The first time the query ran, ChatGPT told me that it didn't know who I was.  That's fine, I thought to myself, because it would be weird to be known like that. After all, I don't really Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0